I agree with Antonis! I went ahead and ordered the FT1XD instead of waiting for the FT-70DR. Having GPS on a little HT is a big plus, as is the wider band receive capability.
Looks like the FT70DR is still vaporware, I expect the final transaction price to be discounted quite a bit from 200 once the initial wave of purchase quiets down. Not sure about other areas but I seldom hear any Fusion activity when driving around the bay area scanning with my FTM3200DR set to auto mode select.
There is nothing like getting excited about a really cool thing like the FT-70DR which Yaesu announced back in April and they hold it back not releasing it with promises of delivery dates which seem to never come - sure as the day someone you trusted told you that there was no Santa Claus - the joy within disappears into thin air like a dog's urine on the pavement of a hot and sunny summer day...!”
I bought an FT-70dr last Friday from HRO Burbank. I've seen several questions on this thread, so I'll answer as many here as I can remember. The radio is made in Japan, its battery is made in China. The battery is a 7.4V-1800 mAh LiIon. The belt clip is similar in size to the earlier belt clips, but it is spring-loaded like the newer belt clips, which are larger. The radio is so new that replacement batteries are not yet available, but HRO says it should have them in a couple weeks. Receive is excellent, and I've gotten good signal reports, both on analog and on C4FM. Keypad programming is extremely easy, the same as the FT-60. One feature that I think is pretty neat is cross-band split memory - this would be useful for satellite work, but I have not tried it yet. My first impression of this radio is that it's good quality, sounds good, and is a cheap way to get into Fusion digital, especially now that the FT-1XDR has been discontinued. Is it as nice as my FT-2? No, it isn't. But if you want a cheaper alternative to get started with Fusion, this is the radio for you.
I have an FT-1XDR and didn't know they had been discontinued, it's a really good radio with APRS and C4FM, I don't understand why they would discontinue it. The reason I am reading this thread is because a buddy of mine who is local just purchased a FT-70DR and we are looking forward to trying out C4FM. It looks like a typically solid Yaesu portable, very nice and if I didn't have the FT-1XDR I would get one of these.
If you're at all interested in working amateur satellites with an HT, the FT-70d is a good choice. One really nice feature of this radio is its ability to store a transmit frequency on one band and a receive frequency on the other band, within ONE memory channel. This allows you to easily set up multiple channels for one satellite, so you can have Doppler shift frequencies available. I worked a satellite with this radio and a hand-held satellite dual-band yagi - the satellite was 415 miles up, at 85 degrees. I'm in Los Angeles, and made an FM voice contact with a Ham near Barstow, CA., on 5W.
The FT-1XDR does both 2m and 7cm bands at the same time, also with the option of one memory channel, most dual band radios can work crossband and save those frequencies to a single memory, as far as I know. It's not unusual to work split bands or custom offsets. I have used it for APRS via satellite but not phone. We tried out the C4FM and it works wells.. the audio was very good.
FT70D can now use WIRES-X and control rooms etc as of todays firmware update and new released updated manual
One of the best features about the FT-60 was the ability to run full power from a AA-battery pack. I wonder if this has the same ability. Also does this use batteries,chargers,etc that are compatible with existing radios are does this have all unique accessories again like they always try to force people to re-buy everything for every new model?
I’ve had mine now for a week and like it, the battery on the other hand is horrendous. Just today I was programming it and transmitted about a dozen times, I was on it for about 4 hours and the battery light started flashing!! Completely unacceptable. I wrote to Yaesu finally and will wait to see what they say.
